Lismore WW1 soldier remembered after quarry discovery

WAR GRAFFITI: Names engraved on the walls of a former chalk quarry, at the Cite Souterraine, Underground City, in Naours, northern France by 9th Battalion Australians, G Fitzhenry of Paddington, Sydney from 1916 July and Alistair Ross, of Lismore. The names are just some of nearly 2000 First World War inscriptions at the site.Jeffrey Gusky

THE names of almost 2000 First World War soldiers have been discovered graffitied on the walls of a chalk quarry in France.

Among them is the name of Lismore soldier Alistair Ross from the 9th Battalion.

On October 5, 1916, The Northern Star reported that Donald Ross, the uncle of Alistair John Ross, had received news that his nephew had died from wounds.

Shortly after his arrival on the Northern Rivers from Scotland, in April 1913, Corporal Ross joined the North Coast Co-operative Company's staff at their factory at The Channon until he was called for duty in January 1915.

He left Enoggera three months later for active service at Gallipoli where he spent five months in the trenches before being sent to a hospital in Gibraltar with serious illness.